Keto Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

Tender keto chocolate muffins with a sugar-free cheesecake center. Just like a bakery but so much healthier. Make your keto mornings fun again. Nut-free option too! This post is sponsored by ChocZero.

Is it weird that I have so many keto recipes that I can’t even remember them all? Or maybe it’s not weird at all, given my advanced age and my penchant for cranking out recipes at a furious pace. One’s aging brain simply cannot keep up!

There are so many recipes in my archives that I truly do forget about some of them. But I happened up on this old recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins, originally written back in January of 2012. Eight long years and this poor thing hadn’t had an update in all that time. I am clearly a very neglectful recipe parent.

Upon choosing to tackle it again, I also decided to give it a complete overhaul, from top to bottom. The original recipe was fine but I’ve learned so much about keto baking in the past 8 years that I thought I could improve upon it, making the batter smoother and more cohesive.

I even changed the name, since “Black and White Muffins” had many people scratching their heads. Keto Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins seems much more apropos.

And while I was at it, I couldn’t help but throw a few of the new ChocZero dark chocolate chips on top, to make them even more appealing! Can’t go wrong with that.

Using a blender can improve your keto batter

I’ve really come to love using a blender to whip up keto muffins and other baked goods. It seems to make a lighter, fluffier, and more cohesive batter. It doesn’t work with all of my recipes, because some are just too thick, but it works very well for muffins.

In conventional baked goods that contain flour, you have to be very careful about over-developing the gluten, causing the end result to be tough. That’s why so many muffin and cake recipes say “mix until just combined”. So using a blender, which goes way beyond “just combined” can be trickier.

But in most keto recipes, we don’t need to worry about gluten so there is no issue with over-developing or over-mixing. In fact, I often find my blender baked goods more tender when they are made this way. It produces an incredibly smooth batter, even when working with more coarse ingredients like nut meals.

One caveat to this approach is that you really do need a good, high powered blender with a large, wide jar and strong blades. Keto batters can be quite thick and you risk burning out the motor.

The good news is that you can still mix this batter up in a bowl if you prefer. They will still be utterly delicious.

Tips for making Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

Cream cheese filling

The delicious cheesecake-like filling is simply cream cheese, powdered sweetener, heavy cream and vanilla. You don’t want an egg in here, as it will make the filling rise too much and it won’t be as creamy smooth once the muffins cool.

Make this before you whip up your batter, so you are ready to fill the muffins right away.

Chocolate muffin batter

This recipe calls for almond flour but you can actually use any nut meal or seed meal you like here. Because it’s blended up, even the more coarse nut meals should work well. If you are hand mixing, however, you may find that your batter is a bit coarse when using meal.

I had a plethora of hazelnut meal that needed to be used so I chose that, which gave these muffins a delicious hint of hazelnut. If you need to be nut-free, try using sunflower seed flour.

Do be sure that your eggs and almond milk (or hemp milk for nut-free) are at room temperature before whisking in the melted butter. If they are cold, your butter will solidify and won’t blend properly. Using room temperature ingredients is a good idea for most baked goods anyway.

The espresso powder is really only to enhance the chocolate flavor, it doesn’t result in any strong coffee taste. It’s an old trick I learned from my idols over at America’s Test Kitchen.

Assembling the muffins

Once the batter is in the muffin pan, you want to make wells in the center of each one. I used a spoon for this and I pushed the batter up the sides of the muffin cup.

Then plop a nice dollop of the cream cheese filling right into that well. I found it took about 1 1/2 tbsp per muffin, and it didn’t always want to come off the spoon nicely, since it was rather thick. I used a small rubber spatula to push it off into the muffin.

Finally, throw some keto-friendly chocolate chipseon top! This is optional, of course, but it makes the muffins somehow more appealing. Chocolate chips are kind of magic, that way.

If you haven’t tried the ChocZero chips yet, I highly recommend. Since they aren’t sweetened with any kind of sugar alcohols, they are great for those with intolerances.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sweetener until well combined. Add the cream and vanilla and beat until smooth. Set aside.

Muffins

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with 12 silicone or parchment muffin liners.

In a large blender, combine the eggs, almond milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Blend until smooth.

Add the almond flour, sweetener, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt. Blend until smooth. If your batter is overly thick, try adding a tablespoon of almond milk or even water. It should be scoopable but not liquidy.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each no more than 2/3 full. With the back of a spoon, create a well in the center of each muffin.

Divide the cream cheese filling among the wells, adding about 1 1/2 tbsp to each muffin. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with chocolate chips

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers are puffed up. Remove and let cool in the pan (the centers will sink, this is normal).

Secrets to Keto Baking

Tips and tricks to delicious and healthy recipes!

Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.
I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them.
I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

Reader Interactions

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Congratulations on the article, that's awesome! These look so delicious, I love that it's low carb and gluten free, you don't find many desserts that fit that description and look this amazing! Great recipe 🙂 Have a lovely day!

I miss the old Mr Christie sandwich cookies, the ones they sell now by anoither maker aren't as good. A lot of people around here (New Brunswick) wait all year for the mint thins at Christmas, i know a few people who freeze them for all year! But the sandwich cookies, people don;t seem to like so much anymore.
These muffins look great! Anything low carb and this delicious looking must be made!! 🙂

These look amazing, Carolyn! I love a cheesecake stuffed muffin and will always choose it over one that isn't…eating healthy or not. BTW, had the same issue with my pumpkin cheese muffins. Stuff with cheesecake = more muffins = not a problem at all 😉

I kinda learned my lesson not to leave almost anything out. My 2 year climbs all over the place. Now she discovered she can open the fridge. .. sigh…
These muffins look amazing! My all time favorite is chocolate cheesecake and these are simply irresistible!

oooo Carolyn! These look awesome! I remember being a Girl Scout and people getting SO excited whenever the cookie order form came around the neighborhood and then at my Dad's work. Your muffins look amazing and I wish I could snack on one right now!

You are right, it is interesting story ..Congrats on the article, it sound like an exciting news!
Those cupcakes look stunning…great job converting them to gluten free! You are our little gluten free genus!

These muffins look absolutely delicious, and they would have made a perfect snack for my Girl Scouts! I have to admit to being somewhat over the cookies after peddling them with my troop for 6 years, but an occasional Thin Mint really hits the spot!

Thank you so much for making my muffins, yours look even better than mine! I have been giving serious thoughts to limiting my gluten intake, the more I think about it the more sense it makes, I may never be able to eliminate completely but it sure wouldn't hurt to cut it back as much as possible.
Thank you for so many delicious alternatives to gluten products!

Thank you for posting this recipe! I made it my first attempt of low carb gluten free baking and they are super yummy. How did you store them? Can I freeze them with the cream cheese center? I am afraid my family of 2 wont be able to eat them all before going bad…. I know, I can't imagine not finishing them before that 🙂

i love these muffins!! so good, the cheesecake part is heaven. but my chocolate muffin dough turned out way too dry. i had to put in lots more almond milk to make it pliable enough to fill into the muffin pan. did i miss something?
the muffin itself turned out a chewy, brownie type muffin which was really good anyway

These look amazing thanks! As for the Canadian Girl Guide cookies (which I sold when I was in Brownies and Guides myself!). I have to say we love the vanilla sandwich cookies in my house– the problem is only1/2 a box is vanilla so you have to suffer through the other 1/2 of chocolate ones! Lol!

For the muffins, in place of both the erythritol and stevia drops, you can use 2 tbsp Sweet Blend. For the filling, use the same amount. I don’t use a lot of powdered stevia so I am not sure about that.

These reminded me of the chocolate cheesecake brownies my friend’s mum used to make for us when I was a kid about 30 years ago. So I tried to bake them and they are delicious! Very similar. I did put in 1.5 tsps of Xanthan Gum and they turned out fine. I also added chocolate chunks (100% cocoa).

These were delicious. I’m diabetic controlling it with exercise and diet. I took my glucose before having one and one hour after. Before my glucose was 99, 1 hour after it was 98. It didn’t affect my sugar at all.

Oh, these are so yummy! Both the chocolate and the cheesecake portions were great. My blender wouldn’t fit all the batter, so I mixed it with a hand mixer and then added it to my blender in two batches. It was so fascinating to see the difference in the batter after the high-speed blending. So much smoother! I get it now. Definitely making these regularly!

In the article you mention using hazelnut flour- how much would you use (instead of almond)? I like to bake using grams and have found with your recipes 1 cup of almond flour works out to be 100g- would it be the same with hazelnut flour?
Thank you for all the top notch recipes you provide us with!

I had the same thing happen with my batter… it was almost like a thick cake batter, but still slowly pourable. I tried adding about 1/4 cup more almond flour, but it didn’t make enough of a difference, so I just left it be. I really wanted to be able to make those “wells” in the batter, and while these really are good, having that cheesecake-y goodness right inside would have been so much better.

Carolyn: is the Rodelle cocoa that you link to what you use too? If so, I have the exact same cocoa, so I don’t think that would be it. Other than that, maybe my Kirkland almond flour is to blame?

I have a big bag of Rodelle in my cupboard and it is indeed what I used. If your batter was like a “thick cake batter” then it was ideal and I am not entirely sure what the problem is? But I suppose it could be the almond flour. I’ve had a number of people make these without issue.

Where do you recommend I buy sunflower seed flour? The one I found on Amazon is a 12oz bag and wouldn’t cover the 2 cups for the recipe. That would buying 2 bags would make an incredibly expensive muffin. Are there other less expensive options for nut free?

I am making this recipe for the first time – they are in the oven right now! I used to be famous for my Black-Bottom cupcakes, pre keto – and I was so sad that I couldn’t make them any more. Fingers crossed, these will rise to the occasion! I am bringing them to the Oscar party this afternoon. Thanks Carolyn!

I made these recently and I’m wondering if there is an error in the measurement of the baking powder? I used the 1 Tbsp recipe called for and these tasted horrible, very ‘tinny’. I am thinking the recipe should be 1 Tbsp?

Hi Jenna, no it’s not an error and you can see from the overwhelmingly positive reviews that most people do not experience this. Sounds to me like you have a baking powder that’s not good. And possibly contains a lot of aluminum, if you got a tinny taste. A lot of them do contain aluminum and it’s really not good for you.

Keto baked goods lack gluten and thus require a lot more leavening agent to rise properly. You could cut it back to 2 tsp but that’s the least.

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Secrets to Keto Baking

Tips and tricks to delicious and healthy recipes!

Looking for the best low carb recipes? You've come to the right place! I'm Carolyn, a major carnivore and an unrepentant sweet tooth. Here you will find all you need to enjoy the low carb keto lifestyle to the fullest! Read more